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MeaganBurrowsSecondPaper 3 - 17 May 2012 - Main.MeaganBurrows
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| | Humility and Humanity: The Legal Leverage of the Unimportant
-- MeaganBurrows - 03 May 2012 | | | To satisfy the requirements of Columbia’s Human Rights Internship Program (HRIP), I was required to attend a number of training sessions. While some of the material was interesting, the sessions didn’t instill very much in me – other than a strong desire to be anywhere but JG at 6:00 pm on a Friday night.
The Legal Supportive Organizing Work session, however, facilitated by Cathy Albisa from the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESI), was surprisingly refreshing. The take home point was that we, as lawyers, are rather unimportant in the grand scheme of things. To be honest, I was a little taken aback not to be met with Columbia’s usual “you are all special snowflakes who have so much to contribute to the world” spiel. My knee-jerk reaction only spoke to the importance of the humbling reminder. | |
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< | Inundated with the administration’s reassurances that I will eventually be gainfully employed and go on to do “amazing things”, I suppose I lost sight of my limited place in the legal profession as a complex web of social interactions. But I don’t think my relative unimportance renders me powerless. What at first may seem to be an imperfection or failing is in fact a potential source of legal strength. I believe that by acknowledging our special place as facilitators, vessels, and mediators with knowledge of the weaknesses inherent in human nature and the cracks those weaknesses create in our socialized legal and political institutions, we can begin to think about how to use our licenses to the greatest effect. Harnessing our power requires remaining humble and cognizant of our rather small place in history and society, and drawing on the principles of social psychology and our knowledge of systemic barriers to discern the easiest spaces for intervention and then applying the right amount of pressure. | >
> | Inundated with reassurances that I will eventually be gainfully employed and go on to do “amazing things”, I suppose I lost sight of my limited place in the legal profession as a complex web of social interactions. But I don’t think my relative unimportance renders me powerless. What at first may seem to be an imperfection or failing is in fact a potential source of legal strength. I believe that by acknowledging our special place as facilitators, vessels, and mediators with knowledge of the weaknesses inherent in human nature and the cracks those weaknesses create in our socialized legal and political institutions, we can begin to think about how to use our licenses to the greatest effect. Harnessing our power requires remaining humble and cognizant of our rather small place in history and society, and drawing on the principles of social psychology and our knowledge of systemic barriers to discern the easiest spaces for intervention and proceeding to apply the right amount of pressure. | | | Beauty and Strength in Humility: Applying Force to the Legal Lever | |
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< | As lawyers, we are not always meant to be the center of attention. We can often have the greatest impact from the shadows – biding our time on the sidelines and playing our cards at the right moment. Eben once discussed the influence he exerted as a disembodied voice over the phone. Our power lies in our ability to play upon the capacity of the human imagination, tipping it ever so slightly off the diving board into the depths of its own fluid subconscious. The human psyche’s compulsion to ruminate over the unseen, the unspoken, and the unknown may only require a minor catalyst to generate a self-sustained reaction. Just as Robinson “let everyone know, in [his] own discreet way, that [he] knows it” and Mr. Collins asked Baron Huddleston for “shorthand notes of the trial”, we do not need to be backed by brute force to exert a quiet and incommensurable strength. All we must do is recognize the human capacity to see and to feel the potential power behind the mere voice at the other end of the phone line, and to use this to the advantage of our client and our cause. | >
> | As lawyers, we are not always meant to be the center of attention. We can often have the greatest impact from the shadows – biding our time on the sidelines and playing our cards at the right moment. Eben once discussed the influence he exerted as a disembodied voice over the phone. Our power lies in our ability to play upon the capacity of the human imagination, tipping it ever so slightly off the diving board into the depths of its own fluid subconscious. The human psyche’s compulsion to ruminate over the unseen, the unspoken, and the unknown may only require a minor catalyst to generate a self-sustained reaction. Just as Robinson “let everyone know, in [his] own discreet way, that [he] knows it” and Mr. Collins asked Baron Huddleston for “shorthand notes of the trial”, we do not need to be backed by brute force to exert a quiet and incommensurable strength. All we must do is recognize the human capacity to see and to feel the potential power behind the mere voice at the other end of the line, and to use this to the advantage of our client and our cause. | | | So what purpose does our prestigious Columbia education serve, if not to prepare us to go out into the world to become “important people” as defined by the administration? While the casebook method may not be very conducive to my professional development, Columbia provides resources through which I may obtain the legal and social knowledge and slight of hand required to become ‘powerfully unimportant’. |
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